Expanding worldview: Australian nursing students' experience of cultural immersion in India

Abstract Increasing cultural diversity and a sense of global community has necessitated the introduction of cultural competence in the education of health care providers. Some institutions have utilised cultural immersion programmes to address this need of cultural competence. Studies have not yet described what this experience is for Australian nursing students. The purpose of this study is to describe the immersion experience of a group of senior Australian nursing students who participated in a 5-week cultural immersion programme in India.

Expanding Worldview: Australian Nursing Students' Experience of Cultural Immersion in India

Abstract Increasing cultural diversity and a sense of global community has necessitated the introduction of cultural competence in the education of health care providers. Some institutions have utilized cultural immersion programs to address this need of cultural competence. Studies have not yet described what this experience is for Australian nursing students. The purpose of this study is to describe the immersion experience of a group of senior Australian nursing students who participated in a five week cultural immersion program in India.

Use of Health Fairs to Develop Public Health Nursing Competencies

This paper describes a community-campus partnership for health education established through the effort of faculty, students, and the community. Health fairs designed to address issues of concern to a community agency were originally conducted with nursing students. This partnership between nursing and a community was expanded to include social work, physical therapy, and medical students. A shared learning experience was structured through the presentation of health fairs in collaboration with agencies in Burlington, Vermont. One goal of nursing education is to produce professionals who have the beginning competencies of public health nursing. Reflection on the process, relationships, and outcomes of the health fairs revealed that students attained these beginning competencies in all eight public health nursing competency domains. Combining community-campus partnerships and an interdisciplinary focus enabled nursing students to become more responsive to community needs and to learn to work collaboratively toward creating healthier communities, thus building skills required for public health nursing.

Psychometric testing and refinement of the Support Needs Inventory for Parents of Asthmatic Children

This study refined the Support Needs Inventory for Parents of Asthmatic Children (SNIPAC) (Coleman, Maltby, Kristjanson, & Robinson, 2001) to produce a more parsimonious tool to assess the importance and meet the support needs of parents of children with asthma. The original tool was completed by 145 parents of 199 children with asthma, and 74 of these also provided test-retest responses. Internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and stability over time were assessed and refinements were made. Internal consistency reliability of the revised 20-item tool ranged from .77 to .95 for the three subscales of the Parent's Priority Scale (PPS), and .92 for the full PPS. Cronbach's alphas ranged from .74 to .90 for the three subscales of the Parent's Fulfillment Scale (PFS) and was .91 for the full scale. Factor analysis results of the PPS were compatible with the tool's conceptual framework. The revised 20-item tool demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in most areas. This tool may be used for research or clinical screening without imposing undue burden on parents. Further work is required to establish the tool's stability over time.

Cancer in Western Australian Indian families: concerns and coping strategies

Discussion with families of Indian clients with cancer living in Western Australia and their anecdotal reports of stress related to care lead to the development of this descriptive, qualitative study. In particular, the study addresses the concerns of Western Australian families of Indian clients with cancer and the coping strategies they employed. Six family members participated in face-to-face interviews. Content analysis revealed a four-phase process that family members described in response to the cancer diagnosis: initial reactions, immediate concerns, ongoing concerns, and coping strategies used. Culturally-specific observations and recommendations are offered for nursing practice and further research.

The common thread: health care activities of Vietnamese and Anglo-Australian women

Employment, social support, marital status, education, as well as a societal expectation to care for family members, can affecting women's health. Women's needs are often submerged, negatively affect their health. A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to explore health care practices of 30 Vietnamese Australian and 30 Anglo-Australian women using a guided interview format. The interview guide was translated into Vietnamese. Data were subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis. The data showed that the Vietnamese women worked three times as many hours on paid employment for similar family income as the Anglo-Australian women, and only 30% believed that their English was acceptable. Both groups of women suggested that immunisation clinics needed to be in the evening and that information about community services should be more widely disseminated. Health services must be accessible, community-based care that focuses on the family.

Health promotion for Vietnamese women and their families

Women's health is an important factor in caring for older people and children at home. This article describes similarities and differences in the way Vietnamese and Australian women manage their own health, and how these affect their family's health, and suggests ways of developing health promotion programmes which take account of these.

Reflection-on-practice: enhancing student learning

The writing of a reflective diary is viewed as an effective tool for promoting reflection and learning in students, and for self-assessment and evaluation of a clinical learning experience. This work is a study of 30 undergraduate nurses and their use of reflective diaries during a period of community health care practice. The theoretical basis of the study is based on Schön's work on reflection-in-action. The research tool, developed for the study of nursing practice by Powell, is based on Mezirow's levels of reflectivity. The findings are that, in the sample used, students do reflect on their practice according to Mezirow's levels of reflectivity, but that the highest number of reflections occur at the lower levels of reflectivity (94% of the total number of scores). However, although only 6% of the total number of scores were found at the higher levels of reflectivity, some 22 of the samples of 30 students did attain conceptual and theoretical reflectivity, the highest levels of reflectivity.

The roots of nursing: teaching caring based on Watson

Caring is the root of nursing. Therefore, care must be a core component of any nursing programme. Watson (1985) developed 10 carative factors that she considers central to the caring process. These carative factors, which 'form a structure for studying and understanding nursing as the science of caring' (Watson 1985), shaped a unit of study at a School of Nursing in a tertiary institution in Western Australia. This paper describes how Watson's carative factors were used as a framework for teaching caring to Semester I undergraduate students.

Distance Education: Joining Forces to Meet the Challenge

This paper describes a unique initiative between Manitoba Health and Brandon University to meet the current challenge of distance education for community health nurses employed by Manitoba Health. In November 1988, a strategy paper was approved, allowing Manitoba Health to contract with Brandon University to facilitate access to university courses. Incentives to encourage Manitoba Health employees to take advantage of these courses included reimbursement for work time and travel and hotel costs to attend associated laboratory sessions provided at off-campus sites (distance education). These incentives provided employees with evidence of tangible support for continuing education. This pioneering venture between two complex organizations demonstrated commitment to further education as well as the ability to initiate a collaborative enterprise.